Sunday 22 March 2026

New and updated items come first:

New and updated items come first:

PUBLIC VIRTUAL MEETING
1830 – 2030 on Monday 23 March 2026
By Zoom Meeting

Will SWF get better health services from the 1^st April 2026 NHS changes? You’ll hear about the systemic changes, how they’ll be delivered, and by whom.

To attend email swfhealthsocial@outook.com for invitation

AGENDA

1. Welcome, Apologies & Introductions – Chair, Peter Blackman
   
2. 1^st Keynote Speaker at 1845 – Essex Integrated Care Board designate Chief of Staff, James Halden. The changes on 1^st April 2026 to the NHS system for Essex, who will deliver them and how?
   
3. 2^nd Keynote Speaker at 1905 – Mid & South Essex NHS Foundation Trust’s Chief Executive, Dawn Scrafield. What will our local hospitals’ Trust do additionally and differently from 1^st April? And to tell us about the Trust’s improvement programmes, strategy and partnership working.
   
4. 3^rd Keynote Speaker at 1930 – Essex Partnership University Trust’s Chief Executive, Paul Scott. What will our local mental health trust do additionally and differently from 1^st April? What is being done to address what’s been heard so far by the Lampard Inquiry?
   
5. Questions to the Panel of Keynote Speakers via the Chair.
   
6. Any Other Business
   
7. Close by 2030

-oo0oo-

Re Meningitis Essex NHS says: The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the NHS are responding to a number of confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease in England.

While the overall risk to the wider public remains low, meningococcal disease can develop quickly and become very serious. It is important that people understand the symptoms of meningitis and septicaemia and know when to seek medical help. Early symptoms can feel similar to flu or other common illnesses like fever, muscle and joint pain and feeling tired. Symptoms can worsen quickly and may include severe headache, confusion and seizures. Up to date information is on the NHS website: “Meningitis and septicaemia: know the symptoms and when to get help”.

Norovirus remains high.

• Norovirus activity remains high but has started to decrease; cases are 30.5% higher than the 5-season average and are particularly high in adults aged 65+; children also suffer badly. Hospital outbreaks remain high. To reduce the spread, please practice good hygiene. Alcohol gels don’t kill Norovirus; wash hands regularly with warm soapy water and use bleach-based products to clean surfaces to protect yourselves and reduce further spread.

WARNING: Measles outbreak: There’s an outbreak of measles, the highly contagious disease, in north London. The majority of cases are in schools and nurseries and some children are requiring hospital treatment, “particularly those who have not been immunised”. Outbreaks like this can easily spread and Essex is close by. Parents are urged to get children vaccinated and check your child’s vaccination status.  Between 1 January 2026 and 9 March2026, there have been 235 laboratory confirmed measles cases reported in England, an increase of 40 cases since the last report on 5 March 2026, mostly driven by the outbreak in North London. Last week the blog: “What are the symptoms of measles and how can I best protect my child?” was updated.  

Recently we reported there was a serious problem with the supply of bone cement – a crucial element in orthopaedic surgery.  Trauma cases were prioritised and for a short time some elective surgery was postponed. resulting in the prioritization of urgent cases and postponement of routine hip/knee replacements. Urgent action was taken. This has now been resolved. We now know there is a sufficient supply in the system and that there is enough future supply that all elective surgery has been restored and additional theatre time is being undertaken to ensure any patients who were postponed, are being rescheduled.

Almost 1 in 7 NHS staff (14.47%) were physically attacked by a patient or the public last year – the highest rate for 3 years – according to the latest NHS staff survey. The shocking statistics also found a record percentage of staff say they were subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour by a patient or member of the public – rising steeply to almost 1 in 3 ambulance staff (31%). It also found nearly 1 in 10 staff (9.26%) said they were subjected to discrimination from the patient and the public – the highest on record. What a disgrace!

The NHS has faced its busiest winter on record while bringing waiting lists to their lowest for almost 3 years. New figures show the number people attending A&E between November and February topped 9 million (9,110 591) for the first time in NHS history – along with almost 130,000 more patients handed over by ambulances compared with winter 3 years ago. Waiting times for patients this winter were the shortest in 4 years.  The number of patients attending A&E who were admitted, transferred, or discharged within 4 hours of arrival at emergency departments was at its highest rate this winter (73.6%) since 2021/22, when it was 73.8%. While the number of ambulance call outs this winter were the highest on record, topping 3.2 million (3,223,778), figures show almost 130,000 more ambulances handovers at A&E where the handover time was known this winter (1,640,783) compared with 2 years ago (1,511,758). Despite high 999 demand, ambulance responded faster to the most serious call outs, including for strokes and heart attacks, than they have for half a decade (2020/21) – with average Cat 2 ambulance waits down to 32:29. Despite the record winter, the waiting list has continued to fall and decreased to 7.25 million in January 2026, dropping by 43,666 compared to the previous month. This represents an estimated 6.13 million unique patients. Overall, the waiting list has decreased by more than 370,000 (374,083) since June 2024.

The In-brief summary of the Covid Inquiry’s Module 3 Report “Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare systems in the 4 nations of the UK”, along with the full report was published this week. Amongst the many headlines the Inquiry found that: Patients were harmed and failed as the pandemic brought the NHS in England close to collapse during its height, only narrowly avoiding it due to the efforts of healthcare staff. The Inquiry questions the “Stay at home” advice is questioned and finds that hospital visiting rules were too tough.

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More than 10,000 calls have been made to Martha’s Rule helplines in the first 16 months of the NHS scheme, saving lives and helping thousands of patients benefit from changes to their care.

Between September 2024 and December 2025, 10,119 escalation calls were made by patients, families and staff to Martha’s Rule helplines. 3,457 (34%) of these calls helped identify acute deterioration, which led to 1,885 patients receiving changes in treatment, including 446 potentially life-saving interventions to transfer them to enhanced levels of care.

More than 6,000 calls have addressed clinical, communication, or coordination concerns, leading to meaningful improvements in care or system navigation for patients and their families.

Hospitals have rolled out communications campaigns, including dedicated posters around their wards and buildings, to help raise awareness of Martha’s Rule and ensure the programme is easy-to-understand and that its use is normalised for patients, families and staff.

Residents in mid and south Essex will have better access to care for skin conditions, including suspected skin cancers, following the launch of a new community dermatology service. This service provides specialist skin assessments, treatment, and advice for adults (16+) in local settings, reducing the need to travel to hospital. Patients will be guided to the right care for their needs, which may include self-management, or treatment at local community or hospital settings. This ensures that patients are seen by the right service at the right time – helping improve access to services and bringing down waiting times for assessment and treatment. Patients that have persistent or unusual changes to their skin should make an appointment with their GP.

An increase in the number of cases of monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium has been identified and an outbreak investigation has been launched to identify additional cases, and begin considering potential sources of the outbreak to enable control measures to be implemented, to prevent further cases.

Salmonella Typhimurium is the second most common salmonella and is a leading cause of salmonellosis in humans. It spreads via consumption of contaminated food, contact with the environment, or person-to-person transmission. Symptoms of salmonella infection include diarrhoea, stomach cramps and sometimes vomiting and fever. Immunocompromised individuals and those in vulnerable groups (young children and older adults) may experience more severe illness such as blood stream infections, infection of metastatic sites, sepsis and multi-organ failure. As of 26 February 2026, 84 confirmed cases had been detected within this outbreak.

Farm visits are a popular family activity as spring gets underway, offering children and adults alike an enjoyable and educational day out. However, visiting a farm carries a small risk of catching infection from animals or the environment. Washing your hands thoroughly with soap and hot running water immediately after you have had contact with animals will reduce the risk of infection. Hand gels or wipes are not a substitute for washing your hands with soap and hot running water, as they do not kill all germs that you could catch from animals.

Following the simple rules below will help keep you and your children safe from infections that may be found on open farms. Pregnant women need to take particular care as infections acquired from animals can be harmful to them and their unborn baby:

• wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after you have touched animals,fences or other surfaces in animal areas
• wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating or drinking
• supervise children closely to ensure that they wash their hands thoroughly
• only eat and drink in picnic areas or cafes
• remove and clean your boots or shoes if they have become dirty or muddy and clean pushchair wheels. Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterwards
• follow instructions and signage provided on farm sites

Things you should not do when visiting a farm:

• do not touch your face or put your fingers in your mouth while petting animals or walking around the farm
• do not allow children to put their faces close to animals
• do not eat or drink while touching animals or walking round the farm. This includes not eating sweets, crisps or chewing gum
• do not eat anything that has fallen on the floor
• do not use gels or wipes instead of washing hands with soap and water. Gels and wipes do not remove all germs you could catch from animals

Ambulance crews and A&E staff have slashed patient handover delays by more than seven minutes this winter — even as they ferried the highest number of patients to hospital in half a decade.

Hospitals at Broomfield, Basildon & Southend in January:

• Saw 64.7% of patients within four hours in A&E, against the national standard of 78%. This was 4.1% worse than December due to severe pressure. National performance was 72.5% and in East of England it was 72.4%. Improving urgent and emergency care performance is part of the Trust’s One Team Improvement Plan.
• 34 minutes was the average time for ambulances to hand over patients, compared to 61 minutes in East of England and 58 minutes naturally.
• 62.9% of patients received cancer diagnosis results within 28 Days in December against the 79% standard. This was a deterioration from 64.7% in November. Diagnostic and outpatient capacities are being increased, including additional support in thoracic, breast, histopathology and radiotherapy specialities.

Broomfield Hospital Consultant breast surgeon Sascha Dua revealed what life is like behind the mask, after cameras followed her at work and at home, for a new national television documentary. She featured in the second episode of Channel 5’s The Surgeon as it followed her and her team as they performed critical surgery for two patients with breast cancer. This unique insight charts the high-pressure world of the operating theatre, to the consulting room where news must be broken, as well as the everyday ups and downs of life at home.

In a new campaign, the NHS urges people to turn on ‘push alerts’ from the NHS App so they get reminders about appointments and can rearrange any they can’t make. 1 in 4 appointments are missed; this is a massive hit on our NHS and we must ‘do our bit’ not to do this as it lengthens the waiting list and is an unnecessary big cost which should be spent on treatments. In Mid & South Essex just under 211,000 appointments were missed in 2025, which amounts to 400 per GP practice each month.

Over 400 residents across Mid and South Essex have learned they have high blood pressure (hypertension) and need treatment, thanks to a local NHS community outreach programme. Seventeen NHS teams from Primary Care Networks (PCNs) delivered 29 community events during 2025 as part of the Cardiovascular Disease Community Outreach Grants Scheme. Funded by NHS Mid and South Essex, the events reached over 1,650 patients who were offered blood pressure checks, health checks and referrals to stop smoking and weight management services. The one run in South Woodham Ferrers in conjunction with this Group saw around 150 people. Our 2023 research project identified this as the largest health condition in the Town.

Fewer than half of adults are taking up their free shingles vaccine in the first year of being eligible. Figures published last week show that 42.1% of those turning age 66, who had been eligible since their 65th birthday, had received their first Shingrix dose by October 2025. Among those turning age 71 who have been eligible since turning 70, vaccine uptake coverage stands at 53.5%. The shingles vaccine is part of an all-year-round programme with all older adults becoming eligible when they turn age 65 or 70. Those aged between 70 and 80 years should already have been offered a shingles vaccine but should catch-up if they have missed out and contact their GP Practice. It is also offered to all severely immunosuppressed people aged 18 years and over.

Patients across England will benefit from new bone scanners to diagnose fragile bones earlier and prevent painful, life-changing fractures:

• 20 new bone scanners to speed up diagnosis of osteoporosis and other bone conditions across England;
• Tens of thousands of patients – particularly women at higher risk – to benefit from earlier treatment and fewer life-changing fractures;
• Builds on first wave of new scanners already in use, helping cut waiting times and prevent illness earlier.

The social care system that supports older and disabled people in England is cobbled together and confusing, according to Baroness Louise Casey, who has the task of reforming it. As chair of the independent commission on adult social care, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the experience for people trying to get help was “horrendous”. Giving her first assessment of the problems since the commission started work last year, she says the care system relies on the exploitation of its workforce. She also said that cross-party political support would be needed to bring about the fundamental change required. Baroness Casey said the care system is fragile and divided, with drawn out discussions over who pays for what, making it anxiety-laden and confusing for those who need support.

“People spend hours and hours and weeks and weeks trying to sort out care for their family”, she said. “Dealing with all sorts of issues from the multiple different letters, the multiple different assessments, multiple financial assessments.” She believes a stock-take is needed to create an adult social care system which meets the needs of the current population, as people are increasingly living longer with more complex needs.

Baroness Casey delivered her first tough assessment of the problems that need fixing at a conference this week. She pointed to a total reliance nationally on underpaying care workers and an imbalance in power between the NHS and council-run social care, which ends up serving the institutions not people. “We’ve still got people earning less than the minimum wage. They are often not paid for travel, they are often not paid for holidays.”  “This divide between what is care and what is health does not exist to the public. It is our divide.” The deep-rooted difficulties faced by people with dementia or Motor Neurone Disease (MND) to get the right care, are examples of a failing system. Families of those with dementia “bear the brunt” with little information or support, and people diagnosed with MND, whose life-expectancy is short, still face multiple assessments and means tests.

The independent commission started work last summer. It has been examining the problems facing the care system in England and is due to produce a report this year with a plan for how to create a National Care Service. Phase two, which will look at how social care is funded in the longer term, is not due to report until 2028.

In the meantime, this is the foundation of the huge problems in the NHS as beds are blocked and patients who are discharged are returned early to hospitals because the social care is unavailable or insufficient. We must lobby about this as despite the difficulties this huge problem must be solved.

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